A man was arrested on Thursday after driving a car into a labor union demonstration in Munich, Germany, the Associated Press reports.
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The man is suspected to be an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan. He injured at least 30 people, including children, in the attack, local authorities said. Some victims reportedly sustained serious injuries.
Members of the service workers’ union ver.di were walking along a Munich street around 10:30 a.m. local time. That’s when a Mini Cooper reportedly crashed into the back of the group.
Police fired a shot at the car, according to deputy police chief Christian Huber. They then overtook the vehicle and arrested the suspect.
The Suspect Is Reportedly a 24-Year-Old Asylum Seeker Who Had a Valid Residence Permit
“We feel with the victims, we are praying for the victims — we hope very much that they all make it,” Bavarian governor Markus Söder told reporters at the scene.
“It is suspected to be an attack — a lot points to that,” Söder added.
In covering the incident, Sky News Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins noted that the motive of the crash was not yet clear.
“Was this an accident? Or was this a deliberate attempt to injure people?” she pondered. Footage of the Mini Cooper was shown, revealing the car’s shattered windshield.
The suspect’s car was towed away late Thursday afternoon after being inspected by investigators, the AP reports.
Police later said that the suspect was a 24-year-old Afghan asylum-seeker. Bavaria’s state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said officials believe the protest was likely targeted at random.
According to authorities, the suspect lived in Munich and had a valid residence permit. The AP added that he was “known to authorities from investigations in which he had been a witness because of a former job as a store detective.”
The state’s justice minister, Georg Eisenreich, said that the incident was being investigated. Prosecutors in the case are said to specialize in “extremism and terror.”
The incident is just the latest attack in Germany committed by alleged perpetrators thought to be seeking asylum. Last month, a man and a 2-year-old boy were killed in a knife attack in Aschaffenburg. The suspect in that case is an Afghan man whose asylum application was rejected.
The Munich Tragedy Is the Latest Incident to Spark Immigration Concerns in Germany
Knife attacks in Mannheim and Solingen last year were also suspected to be committed by immigrants from Afghanistan and Syria, respectively.
Most notably, the December 2024 Christmas market attack in Magdeburg also sparked immigration controversy. The suspect in that case, reportedly a doctor from Saudi Arabia, came under anti-immigrant fire despite the fact that he was a permanent resident of Germany and identified as an ex-Muslim.
“This perpetrator acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner — like an Islamist terrorist, although he was obviously ideologically an Islamophobe,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at the time.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described Thursday’s crash as “a terrible attack.”
“Anyone who commits crimes in Germany will not just be punished severely and have to go to prison, but must expect that he cannot continue his stay in Germany — and that also goes for countries that it is very difficult to send people back to,” he said.